Ride Videos - Tips and Tricks

I thought it might be helpful to start a thread about doing videos. I've messed around with several mounting options, so that may be a good subject to start with. Here are a few.

Tank mount:

This is using a suction-cup mounting bracket for the camera. It's the first method I used, and I liked it because you could see the gauges. There are a couple of versions of the mount here: https://amzn.to/2Cf7tWD

The next mount I messed with was the chest harness. This moves the camera back, so the road itself is less emphasized, you can see your hands and arms, the tank and the cluster. The tank mount catches all the vibration of the frame and the bike, where the chest harness uses your body to buffer it. It tends to be smoother in general. Here's the Energica Ego ride I did:

I got all carried away with some clamps and booms later on, and set up a 3' boom mount that clamped to the frame, just over my shoulder. Again, you get a fair amount of vibration since there's no damping from your body.

I had all the gear (because: photographer), so that wasn't difficult, and I like the angle because it almost feels like you're a passenger, but it's a royal PIA to take on and off.

Using those clamps, booms and brackets you can mount the camera all over the frame. I think Ed Fargo likes the "low front wheel mount" view, if memory serves, and this is a clip of goofing around with a GoPet three-wheeler:

Again, clamps and brackets from other photo projects.

Here's a helmet mount, and what can happen:

It's kind of cool because the camera tracks wherever your head goes, and your head damps vibration even more than your chest/torso, but camera angle is tough. You have to take a stab, then look at the video to see what you're getting if you don't have FPV (first person view), but most of the new cameras have that. I didn't. (Obviously lol)

Finally, it's nice to mix up the shoot a bit - this is my favorite ride, and I got off and set up the camera on the side of the road to break up the angle. The chest mount is nice, here you can see the camera tracking along with my body lean and stuff, and you can rotate your torso intentionally to change the view a bit. (Start it at 2:30 to avoid all my yabbering, if it doesn't automatically.)

Finally, I can't overstate the importance of a good solid camera mount when you can do it. Whether we're talking video or still photography, use a tripod when you can. NOT when it's convenient, but when it's POSSIBLE. It makes a huge difference for a whole lot of reasons, not the least of which is being able to lock in focus on a particular area in the frame, as well as making the video tolerable to watch.

I don't know why people fight this so hard, honestly, but as the saying goes, the difference between a good photograph (or video) and a GREAT one is about 5%. That is, put in about 5% more effort, and you'll get a huge result in the final product.

This is short money - only $30, captures in HD, and is the size of a key fob. You can literally velcro the thing anywhere on your bike. I got it for drone and kite work, but I used it all the time for other projects. I used it for a two-camera rig on the belt sander - see it looking back, at 2:40 to get the sawdust spray:

That sucker needs a parachute to slow it down LOL
Nothin' more fun than hangin with a bunch of crazy drunk inventors tweakin' power tools!! LMAO

When I was 13 I read a book titled " Robots Have No Tales "
I wish I kept that book... It's selling for $500!
Anyway, The book is about a genius mad scientist of the future who gets blackout drunk and wakes up the next day in a totally changed world with inventions that he made while drunk, and doesn't know what the hell they do or what they have done!!
It's quite entertaining.

Right? Sam Adams donated literally pallets of beer. (Their homeworld is right next door, and the proceeds go to the food pantry.) So... yeah, power tools, endless free beer, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

So, editing. What do you guys use? I actually am a certified instructor for Final Cut Pro, but I use iMovie. It's faster and easier, but it HAS to be iMovie 11, (v 9.0.xx) - the later versions got screwed up with "improvements".

I used the GoPro Studio app on a Windows 7 laptop to create short mp4 clips. Then from there, I imported those clips into Windows Live Movie Maker. I tried several open source apps on my Ubuntu 14.4 OS but had little success and much frustration. I have an old Apple laptop (my emergency back up) thats running SnowLeopard I think, but I didn't break it out to try it.

I was looking at your video, and one reaction I had was that the compression seemed funky. That gives you the effect of, well, chunkyness for lack of a better word. Now that I see how you put it together and think about it, by parsing it out as the MP4 clips, then importing those into Movie Maker, you're effectively compressing a compression. This is what I mean:

This is my theory. You can verify it simply by looking at the raw clips out of the GoPro - do they look better than the final cut? If so, I'd suggest trying out a quick cut directly with Movie Maker or iMovie to test the theory.

LMAO... I'm not trying to start a new career!! I know what you mean about the blurred images though. That was intentional artistic license, btw. Right!!!

Still... not a bad little video for a very first attempt... you gotta admit! Comon...throw me a bone!!

The problem I was having with Windows proprietary software was importing straight into it with the gopro. I dont have a clue why it was so difficult.
I really dont want to spend too much time with this videography thing. LOL. That kinda work is for the pros like you!!

OK here's what I've got. A little more detail from you on what you did would be helpful, but with what I've got, here goes.

Most of the GoPro cameras that I could find shoot MP4 files, but with a codex Windows doesn't like. Here's a good explain: https://www.easefab.com/gopro-workfl...vie-maker.html Finding out what camera you used would help, but it's a good guess this is the issue based on what you've said.

Using a third-party converter is pretty common for video work, and it generally doesn't compress, it just transposes. I'm a little baffled as to why you couldn't do that with the GoPro Studio software, and I'm still not convinced it's a result of the conversion to MP4 you did, but until you confirm that the original GoPro files are better quality and don't have the compression issues in the final video, I got nothin'. If it were me, in your place, I'd just cut the thing in GoPro Studio anyway. It has all the tools you need:

Cut it, export it, game over.

I get you're not looking to be a professional, that's kind of the point. I'm trying to give you a simple, easy, low-no cost high quality option. Cutting videos is tedious and time consuming, at least in my opinion, and it kind of bites when you've invested all that and the quality isn't what it could be.

There's a remote possibility that the appearance is from your final export settings out of Windows Movie Maker, if you chose a really aggressive compression or resolution option, which Windows tends to let you do without giving you fair warning. Seeing your settings when you exported would answer that.

Hey Ted thanks for all of the suggestions and intended help. This videography thing is a hobby I really don't have time or desire to take up. The editing process is way too much like work for me to be fun. It took probably 12-14 hrs to complete.
I was using a GoPro Hero3 I believe. A buddy loaned it to me. The GoPro Studio app was downloaded for Windows7. When I view that clip we are discussing using Windows media player, it appears fine without any of the blurriness.
The GoPro studio had some issues working on the Windows platform. One edit completed, after much work, without any soundtrack whatsoever. It just erased for no reason at all... very frustrating. I dislike Microsoft for many reasons, this being one of them.
I have a love-hate relationship with most things Microsoft.
However, as mentioned, I couldn't get much success with the open source programs I tried either. I suppose if I paid for a proper video program, it would be much better. No thanks!